I USED TO BE NORMAL: A BOYBAND FANGIRL STORY | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Jessica Leski (12, 93 mins)
An entertaining, affectionate documentary that examines the curious obsession certain girls have for boybands and the impact that they have on individual lives. Following four women who are mega fans of the Beatles, Backstreet Boys, Take That and One Direction with sensitivity and skill, the film addresses that fandom isn’t just about screaming hysterically and having raging hormones, but it is far deeper and more complex than that.
So, while there’s the collages, rooms covered floor-to-ceiling with pictures, incessant exuberance and viral videos of hysteria, there’s also an examination of the dynamics of boy bands, and why and how they work. Manufactured for every fan to fancy at least one of them – the Gary Barlow dad figure; sexy and mysterious John Lennon; the perfection of floppy-haired Harry Styles – the fabrication runs deeper. The Beatles’ music forms an emotional crutch for Susan, now a film producer, through the death of a childhood friend and a way of coping with divorce with her two young children. Another, natural athlete Dara, loses her ability to compete and starts to question her sexuality: how can she be obsessed with Gary Barlow and be gay? Sadia has the Backstreet Boys to fall back on in the face of strict family values and trying times at college whilst another, Turkish teenager Elif, tries to launch her own music career to get closer to her One Direction heroes in the face of parental disapproval.
Shot over four years and using animation and stock footage, together with the honesty of the four women involved, director Leski has formed a multigenerational examination of a female phenomenon. From going on Backstreet Boy cruises to sneaking Take That songs into Powerpoints, these women try to come to terms with their obsessions, wrestling with conflicting feelings and guilt about their favourite bands but ultimately coming to terms with what it actually means. Not an embarrassment but an awakening, a release for all four of the women; as Dara says, “What’s life without a big major chorus?”
Out now via digital download
words KEIRON SELF